Busy Being Bored
Shhh, I’m busy being bored.
So read the caption on the photo of the sleeping dog.
It makes me wonder, how often do we crave boredom; that feeling that there is nothing for us to do right now?
I know many - myself included, at times - who fear boredom. We’ve spent our lives with the expectation to always be doing something. There are many unfair, and unhelpful, labels given to those who take their foot off the pedal, and take time out from the busyness.
Perhaps as the distractions afforded us by technology and information overload skyrocket, I’m hearing whispers of change. A yearning to reclaim time away from the doing, and spent more on the being.
It makes me wonder, what happens when we give ourselves permission to be bored, if just for a little while?
I’m an advocate for the ‘minimum viable’ option on anything we’re trying to do. So, why not apply this concept to being bored.
What if, next time we find ourselves filling 30 seconds, 2 or 10 minutes with something ‘productive’, we do nothing? No looking at our phone. No listening to a part of a podcast. No getting organised. Nothing.
What if we were to use these micro moments to stop? We can allow that space, however small, to breathe. Look up and around. Simply, to stop for a moment.
What if we were to reclaim some micro moments in the pursuit of boredom?
Now there’s a change worth making, don’t you agree!